


Drought in Stormy Weather

by honeypothux



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Accidental Hamilton references, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-12
Updated: 2016-07-12
Packaged: 2018-07-23 16:24:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7470771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeypothux/pseuds/honeypothux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the wake of Starkiller Base, Kylo Ren discovers he's lost access to the Force. Unwanted by his Master and left at the mercy of General Hux, he prepares himself for the worst. The General, in characteristic fashion, surprises him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drought in Stormy Weather

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt fill for someone over at [Soft Kylux Kinks](http://kyluxsoftkinks.tumblr.com/post/147223411886/i-crave-some-hurtcomfort-with-kylo-losing-his). I really hope whoever requested this enjoys it!

The Force was like rain water over the galaxy. It trickled over every crack and crevice, running over some places and pooling in others. No one was without it, though some felt it only in passing, unable to drink it as it ran down their backs.

Kylo Ren was an ocean. The water, the Force, flowed to him, collected in him. He was strong with it, stronger than his mother, his uncle. Stronger than even his grandfather, or so his Master said, over and over again. He drowned in it, struggled with it, but grew because of it. The Force was everything to him. There was nothing as important, nothing as fulfilling. When it came up over his nose and choked him, he thanked it.

But now, laying in the medical bay of the Finalizer, he felt dry. His lips cracked and he breathed easy, the world quiet around him. He blinked sleep from his eyes, squinting against the too-bright lights above. There were droids moving and talking, but they sounded a million miles away. His ears rang and he reached for his Master in the Force. He had to explain himself. He had to apologize. The scavenger, he hadn’t known she was quite so—

Kylo reached and reached but found nothing. For a split moment, he thought Snoke had abandoned him. His Master’s presence was gone, leaving a gaping space in the back of his skull. He’d failed so badly that he’d become useless, condemnable. Snoke would leave him here in shambles, leave him weak and broken. He was useless. He was more than useless.

And the he realized it wasn’t just that Snoke was gone. He reached and reached and found _nothing_. The Force was silent around him, unresponsive to his pull. The ringing in his ears became deafening and he screamed, unable to hear himself shouting. He tore himself from bed, tubing shredding out his veins. Blood leaked onto the ground and the droids buzzed, concerned. He shoved them aside and crumbled to his knees, forehead pressed to the cold metal floor.

“Master, please,” he begged, almost sobbed. “Master, please. I can still help you. I can get better. I just need more time. Give it back. Give it back, please.”

Kylo begged on his knees, calling for a man who could not hear him. The droids attempted to touch him and he shoved them away again. He needed to repent. He needed to be forgiven. He couldn’t go on like this. The Force was everything. He’d sacrificed everything for the Force.

He remembered how easy it was to cut Han down. His father's body gave way like cobweb, punctured with almost no force at all. It was such a simple action, an easy thrust, and yet the sensation it provided was beyond description. He watched his father’s face, eyes widening in slow recognition, and the tips of his fingers started to buzz. Something worked its way up through his body, spreading through the crown of his head, snaking down into his guts. By the time Han fell down the oscillator’s exhaust shaft, it had reached the soles of his feet and he was changed.

His heart fell apart and he was strong, precisely what he’d always longed to be. But now? Now his heart was scraped from his chest and minced, leaving behind nothing but a dull ache and dreaded weakness. He’d given all for nothing.

The door to the medical bay opened, but Kylo didn’t bother to look up. The Supreme Leader would not come for him. If he took the Force, he would not return it. If Kylo lost it himself, then he’d failed yet again. Snoke would not have him. Whoever was there was unimportant.

“Ren.”

The General’s voice, clipped and stern, sent a jolt down his spine. He looked up, exposed and maskless in the hospital smock. The cut across his face stung for the first time as Hux looked over it, shame burning in Kylo’s chest. So, the General had come to gloat. It was only fair. Kylo had spent years standing in Hux’s way, justified only by his strength with the Force. With that gone, Hux had every right to crush Kylo beneath his boot like vermin.

“Get off the floor. You’re bleeding,” Hux said, drawing closer. His skin was paler than usual, the veins beneath his eyes coming through as purple smudges. Hux’s hair was unkempt and his great coat missing, the sleeves of his jacket dirtied with blood.

“I was bleeding when you found me before. This is no different,” Kylo said, placing his face back against the floor.

In the snow of Starkiller, with ground rumbling beneath him and his guts ready to spill for his side, he awaited death. He’d felt the Force buzzing around him, a dim glow as his mind started to sink away in death. Just as he was about to close his eyes, he heard the crunch of boots in snow and accented shouting. Without looking, he knew who it was. His final thought before darkness came was, “Why is he still here?”

“And if I must lift you again, I will,” Hux replied, standing over Kylo. His posture was slumped and uneven, rigidity worn away. As Kylo continued to lay still on the ground, he sighed. “Ren, I’m tired. Get up.”

Kylo obliged, if only to make the General go away. He sat himself on the end of the hospital bed, eyes fixed to his own feet. Hux remained in the room, standing just a few feet away. Kylo flinched under his gaze, choking on his own shame.

“How long are you going to stand there?”

“The Supreme Leader told me you’ve lost the Force.”

Kylo tensed. Lost. So, it was his fault, after all.

Hux moved closer again, standing before Kylo. Their tired eyes met and they frowned, depressed with the state of each other. “He used to be so proud,” they thought, hope for the future dwindling away.

“I want to know if it’s true,” Hux said, sitting beside Kylo. It was no closer than they got when growling at each other, but Kylo was stripped down and he was exhausted. They were vulnerable, torn apart at the seams. One wrong move and it’d be over.

Kylo looked over at Hux, studying the end of his sleeves. The blood was his own, seeped into the wool after, what, Hux carried him himself? He was too scrawny for that. The image of Hux attempting to lift him, struggling in the snow as the planet fell apart, made him bite the inside of his cheek. What unnecessary risk over a useless man.

“You doubt the Supreme Leader?” Kylo asked, turning back to study his own palms. He traced an old burn scar, a leftover from his Jedi training, and clenched his jaw.

Hux inhaled, leaning back. Of course Kylo couldn’t make this easy. “No, it’s not that. I just didn’t think losing the Force was a…possibility. I didn’t think it was something that could happen.”

Kylo had thought the same thing. Of course he’d known the Force could leave, that the connection could be lost or cut away. He’d read the stories of Ulic Qel-Droma and Callista Ming. But it didn’t seem like something that could happen to him. He was Darth Vader’s champion, the herald of the new Empire. It shouldn’t have been able to happen to him.

“He told you the truth,” Kylo said. He felt Hux’s eyes on his face and turned it aside, unwilling to suffer further judgement.

Hux nodded his head. “I see.” For all the years he’d known Kylo Ren, he’d loathed the Force. It was an unfair skill, a world-ending power he could never quite control or understand. There was the sense that, no matter how powerful a man became, he would always pale beside a Sensitive. At night, he feared his thoughts were not his own, trembling at the possibility that Snoke or Kylo might have taken root in his mind. And yet, even with his bitter envy and fear, Hux could do nothing but feel sorry for Ren. He’d lost everything.

They both had, in a way.

Kylo pressed his lips together, rolling his hands into fists. “Did he tell you what he was going to do with me?”

A smile spread across Hux’s face, dull and struggling to remain. “Yes,” he said. “He told me the strangest thing.”

“And what is that, General?”

“He told me to do as I pleased.”

Kylo lifted his head. He’d expected swift punishment, an execution in Snoke’s chambers. The one Knight who rebelled was torn up by the others. Even that made more sense than this. He inhaled, eyes fluttering closed. Snoke didn’t care about what happened to him, now. It hurt worse than the idea of dying at his Master’s hand.

“And what is it you please?” he asked. Hux was an efficient man. The answer was obvious,

But Hux sat in silence for a long time, staring straightforward at the wall. His posture shifted, regaining the rigidity is usually possessed, as he weighed his options. Kylo watched him, yearning for the Force, wishing he could skim the General’s mind and know without all the pretense, without all the time wasted trying to find a “nice way to put it.”

“Just come out with it, General. Just say you’ll kill—“

“I think I’d like you to take command of the Storm Troopers.”

Kylo swallowed his words and choked. He sat up, eyes wide and blood shot. “Hux.” His life was in a hundred thousand pieces and here Hux was, making it all the more confusing. “Hux, I don’t understand.”

Hux stuck his nose up, scoffing. “Are you really so daft?” He asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “We lost Phasma on Starkiller. I need a new leader for the Storm Trooper’s fast and you have plenty of experience leading them on missions. You’re a capable warrior even without the Force. I see no reason why I shouldn’t choose you.”

Ren furrowed his brows. “There are 50,000 men aboard the Finalizer alone. I am certain Phasma had officers and underlings prepared for this situation. I am not your best option.”

Hux groaned again, turning on the bed to face Kylo, fully. The fallout from Starkiller evaporated away from him, replaced by a profound sense of irritation. There was nothing quite like Kylo Ren to make your forget all your troubles. “Are you the commander of this ship? I know my own men. I know what sort of choice I’m making," he snapped, shoving a finger against Kylo’s chest.

Kylo stared down at his finger, a headache bubbling at the base of his skull. None of this made sense. “General, I just can’t see why you’re doing this—“

“Maybe I just can’t take another change right now!” Hux’s voice carried through the room, striking the walls. He dropped his head, hand balling up in the fabric of Kylo’s hospital gown. “I can’t do it. I can’t have everything be so different so fast. I lost the weapon, I won’t…can’t lose more than that.” His voice was breaking around the edges. Kylo couldn’t tell if his eyes were read with tears or exhaustion, but it didn’t matter.

He took Hux by the wrist, lifting his hand away. Kylo ran his thumb over bird-thin bones, tracing tendons and veins. Hux looked up, staring at Kylo’s hand, and fell quiet. They watched each other, turning from hands to faces and eyes. Hux swallowed and Kylo exhaled. Kylo felt something shift, a warm tingle spreading from fingertips to crown of his skull and down to souls of his feet.

Hux leaned forward and pressed their lips together, closing the space between them. He tipped Kylo back onto the bed, crawling over him. In the end, it had only taken one touch, skin to skin, to ruin them.

Kylo returned the kiss, free hand tangling in Hux’s hair. His injuries ached as Hux’s body pressed against them, but Kylo couldn’t bear to stop. They tangled together, mouths and bodies warm against each other.

When Hux pulled away, he was red-faced and panting. “You aren’t leaving,” he commanded.

Kylo smiled beneath him. “A general even now.”

“Shut up.” Hux brought their lips back together and forced Kylo further up the bed, laying him back against the pillows. When he pulled back, he fell over at Kylo’s side. Kylo tucked an arm around Hux, drawing him up against his chest.

They laid together, quiet. Hux ran his hand over Kylo’s stomach, shushing Kylo and soothing his injuries. Kylo closed his eyes and tried to ignore the holes in his mind, the places left behind by the Force and Snoke. It was easier with Hux there. He filled in the empty places with something warm and good. It made the suffering bearable.

“I still don’t think I’m your best choice, General,” Kylo said. It was hours later, the lights having dimmed in response to the curfew. Hux was half asleep at his side, breathing light and shallow.

Hux hummed in response, rubbing one had over his face. He hadn’t slept in the fifty-two hours following Starkiller’s destruction, but the time in Ren’s bed was enough to keep him somewhat lucid. “When have I ever cared what you think, Ren?”

“A fair point.” Kylo brought his fingers back into Hux’s hair. “But I cannot do anything for you, General. I am damaged goods. I will only disappoint.”

Hux grumbled again, reaching up to tug on Kylo’s hair. “You’re doing this. That is enough.”

Kylo squinted. “This is enough?”

“Yes. If you just pet my hair, whenever I asked, for the rest of my life, you’d have been enough,” Hux said, yawning. He blinked to keep himself up, and nuzzled against Kylo’s good shoulder, pressing himself into the warm spot they’d made against the mattress.

Kylo stared up at the ceiling. “I would be enough.” He repeated the words like a magic spell, every word weighing on his tongue. He was supposed to change the galaxy, to finish what Vader started. That was what Snoke said. That was his destiny. He needed to fulfill it.

And yet, he was more fulfilled here, in Hux’s arms, than he’d ever been. He closed his eyes, exhaling a long-held breathe. Hux was right. This would be enough.

Just as Kylo felt himself starting to fall asleep, Hux spoke again.

“Kylo?”

“Hm.”

“How does the Force work?”

“Like water, Hux.”

“Oh.”

There was a long silence, interrupted only when Hux brought a kiss to Kylo’s cheek.

“Water comes back.”

“What?”

“When it rains, water comes back. Dried riverbeds remember they are rivers. Water comes back.”

Kylo smiled and returned the kiss.

“Maybe so, Hux. Maybe so.”


End file.
